II YMEN OP TEE A. 
663 
who has no respect for the rights of yellow-jackets has be¬ 
fore him a lesson which he will have no difficulty in learning, 
if he takes the pains to disturb one of the oval, gray paper 
nests commonly found hanging from the eaves of buildings. 
The yellow and black mass of seething and buzzing ven¬ 
geance that can pour out of the hole in the bottom of one 
of these nests seems almost as wonderful as the miraculous 
multiplication of the loaves and fishes. And these insects 
do not threaten more than they can perform: their painful 
Fig. 792.—Nest of Vtrs/a. 
stings are so well known, that neither man nor beast tres¬ 
passes willingly on their domains. Their nest is a real palace 
of papier-mach£. It consists of several horizontal combs 
suspended one above the other, with commodious galleries 
between, and all enveloped by an elaborate covering made 
of many folds of water-proof paper. The yellow-jackets are 
clever and original artisans. Once we chanced, most inad¬ 
vertently, to lift a board and thereby tear off the whole roof 
of a nest; naturally we beat a hasty retreat. On returning 
to the spot a few days later we found the nest neatly and 
thoroughly covered with a sloping water-proof roofing of 
